Riverbed licensing covers how Riverbed Technology LLC and its affiliates grant rights to use the software in its SteelHead acceleration appliances, virtual and cloud instances, its Aternity digital experience cloud services, and its network performance management (NPM) products such as AppResponse, NetProfiler and NetIM. All Riverbed Offerings, including Cloud Services, Hardware, Software, Support Services and Professional Services, are governed by the Riverbed General Terms, which incorporate a Cloud Services Exhibit, a Hardware Exhibit, a Software Exhibit and a Professional Services Exhibit published at riverbed.com/license.[1][13] Product-specific rules sit in a separate Additional Use Rights document, which Riverbed may update from time to time and which states that any use not in line with it is a breach of the Agreement.[1][2] Software is licensed, not sold.[1] For the general models, see concurrent and device licensing and subscription and consumption licensing.
Editions
Riverbed sells product lines rather than one suite, and each line has its own tiers.
| Product line | Commercial forms in the retrieved documents | Detail article |
|---|---|---|
| SteelHead (WAN and application acceleration) | Physical CX xx80 and xx90 appliances, SteelHead Virtual, SteelHead Cloud on AWS, Azure and GCP, SteelHead Mobile, SteelHead SaaS; perpetual feature tiers (Essentials, Standard, Enterprise) or Flex subscription tiers FLEX-25 to FLEX-6000[8] | SteelHead and Flex licensing |
| Aternity (digital experience) | Aternity EUEM Essentials and Enterprise, Aternity 360 bundle, Aternity Mobile, APM[2] | Aternity and APM licensing |
| Network performance management | AppResponse, NetProfiler, Flow Gateway and NetIM as appliances, virtual or cloud images, with Flex licences on newer models; NPM+ cloud service; Riverbed IQ[10][2] | Network performance management licensing |
| Legacy analysis tools | Packet Analyzer, Transaction Analyzer, Riverbed Modeler and others, licensed per device or concurrent user[2] | Network performance management licensing |
On physical SteelHead and NPM appliances, the hardware and the software licence are separate items. Hardware-based Solutions “will not function without a valid corresponding Software license”, and the customer must normally buy the hardware together with the software.[5] Hardware SKUs ending in “-E” are refurbished units.[5]
Metrics
The Additional Use Rights set out the generic licensing models. It says offerings are made available on a concurrent, Licensed Server or Licensed Device basis, per user or per seat, or on other capacity metrics given in the order or the price list.[2] Product documents add product-specific units.
| Riverbed term | Catalog row | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Concurrent user or execution | Concurrent user or execution | Desktop analysis tools such as Packet Analyzer and Modeler[2] |
| Licensed Device, Licensed Server | Licensed Device, Licensed Server | Software installed on an identified PC or on a server or cluster acting as one entity[2] |
| Per agent, device, seat, user or unit | Per unit | Agent and user-based products; named-user accounts may not be shared[2] |
| Capacity | Capacity | Throughput, bandwidth, TCP connections, flow capacity, packet storage or management licences, per instance[2] |
| Flex tier (Mbps) | Optimized WAN capacity (Flex license tier) | SteelHead xx80, xx90, Virtual and Cloud on RiOS 10[8] |
| AppUnit | AppUnit (SteelHead SaaS) | SteelHead SaaS[2] |
| License unit | Aternity license unit | Aternity EUEM devices, VDI users, virtual app sessions and servers, mobile devices[9] |
| APM license | APM license | Aternity APM agents per JVM, .NET server or container |
| Node execution | Node execution | Riverbed IQ, Aternity Remediations and Intelligent Service Desk[2] |
| Credits | Cloud Services Credit | Monthly credits bundled with Aternity, NPM+, NetProfiler 4290, AppResponse 8190 and 4190, and NetIM Collectors[2] |
| De-duplicated flows per minute | De-duplicated flows per minute | NetProfiler and Flow Gateway[10] |
| Devices and polled interfaces | NetIM devices and polled interfaces | NetIM[10] |
Counting / floors
Grant (Software Exhibit v11-2023). Software may be used only for internal business use, for “the number and type of Software licenses specified in the applicable Order”, and for the licence duration stated in the order.[3] Catalog proof: Software is licensed for the number, type and duration in the Order, for internal business use.
Generic metrics (Additional Use Rights v.091726). Concurrent licences may be installed on any number of devices, but each user of an instance counts as a concurrent user and each execution as a concurrent execution.[2] A Licensed Server licence may also be installed on one backup server or cluster that is used only if the primary fails, and only one copy may run at a time.[2] Capacity licences apply per instance: each instance may be used “only up to the capacity purchased by Customer for that instance”.[2] Catalog proof: Concurrent licences count simultaneous users and executions; Licensed Server may have one standby backup and may be moved only under current support; Capacity licences apply per instance.
Appliances. Software supplied with a hardware unit “is only valid for use with that Hardware unit”, unless the unit is replaced under warranty.[5] For SteelHead and NPM xx80 appliances, the Base Hardware will not work without an Embedded Software licence, which may be perpetual or subscription.[2] Catalog proof: Software supplied with hardware may be used only on that hardware unit; SteelHead and NPM xx80 base hardware does not function without an embedded software licence.
Aternity. A physical device uses one licence unit, all VDI sessions of one user use one unit, and virtual app sessions use a quarter unit each.[9] See Aternity and APM licensing.
Floors. The retrieved documents publish no general minimum purchase. Product floors appear as model ranges, for example the smallest SteelHead Flex tier is Flex-25 (25 Mbps).[8] No public Riverbed price list was found. The General Terms refer to Riverbed’s “then-current price list” for defining products and pricing.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Riverbed has no processor or core metric for its own software, so virtualization rules are about where a licence may run. Virtual SteelHead, NetProfiler Virtual and AppResponse Virtual are licensed per instance by capacity.[2][10] Subscription Virtual SteelHead 9.6 and later must stay connected to the Riverbed license portal. After more than two weeks without that connection, it stops optimizing traffic.[2] On RiOS 10.3.0, perpetual SteelHead licences cannot be moved to virtual environments, whereas Flex licences can move between physical, virtual and cloud appliances.[7] Aternity counts VDI per username and virtual app sessions per session, and from Agent 11 each virtual app server also needs five units.[9] Cross-vendor background is in virtualization and partitioning.
Cloud / BYOL
SteelHead Cloud runs on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. RiOS 10.x cloud models are sold as FLEX-50 to FLEX-2000.[8] Each SteelHead Cloud instance may be installed in a designated public cloud or at the customer site. A customer-site instance may only optimize traffic to that cloud and “must not be used to optimize traffic solely on Customer’s network”.[2] Riverbed Cloud Services, such as Aternity SaaS and NPM+, are subscriptions for Authorized Users, and the customer licenses any required agent only for the Subscription Term.[4] Customers may not use a Cloud Service to provide a hosted or managed service to others.[4] Catalog proof: On-premises SteelHead Cloud instances may optimize only traffic to the designated cloud provider; No service bureau use, third-party benefit or published benchmarks.
Programs
- Flex Software License. This is a subscription model for appliances, virtual devices or cloud software. It lets the customer move a deployment between hardware, virtual and cloud variants within one product family. Only one variant may be in use at a time, and the metric cannot be downgraded during the term.[2] Riverbed announced the Flex subscription offering for acceleration on 2025-05-13.[14]
- Aternity 360. This is a bundle of Aternity Cloud Services. Every service the customer uses must run on the same endpoints for the whole term.[2]
- Cloud Services Credits. Consumption credits are allocated monthly. They do not roll over, and no more than 60% may be used on AI services.[2]
- Support Services. Support comes in Gold, Gold Plus and Platinum levels. Gold is the only level for Software and Cloud Services.[6]
- Spares, Lab Units and NFR Software and Evaluation. These are non-production licence types, covered in General Terms, support and audit.
Licence keys and portals
Riverbed products use licence keys. The Riverbed Licensing Portal at licensing.riverbed.com retrieves keys using a product identifier. Depending on the product, this is a serial number, a license request key (activation code), a customer key or a token.[11] Appliances with internet access can fetch licences automatically, and air-gapped products use a challenge-response process.[11] From RiOS 10.3.0, SteelHead licences can also be pooled and assigned through the central license manager in SteelHead Central Controller. The CLM and the portal are mutually exclusive for the same set of licences.[7] Aternity licences are allocated in the Aternity console rather than on the portal.[9] Catalog proof: Licence keys are retrieved from the Riverbed Licensing Portal with a product identifier; SteelHead licences are managed in either SCC Central License Manager or the licensing portal, not both.
Contract terms
The Software Exhibit grants a “limited, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, nonexclusive license”.[3] Contractors and outsourcers may operate the Solutions on the customer’s behalf.[3] Timesharing, service bureau use, reselling and publishing benchmark results are prohibited.[3] The Agreement is personal to the customer and cannot be assigned without Riverbed’s written consent.[1] When the Agreement ends, all subscriptions, licences and rights of use cease.[1] On renewal, Riverbed may raise subscription fees up to its then-current list price.[1] Buying support for any Solution requires buying support for all Solutions the customer has purchased. A lapse is back-billed, plus a 10% reinstatement charge.[6] Under the End of Life Policy, appliance support continues for five years after End of Availability, and subscriptions are supported until the end of the term.[12] Catalog proof: The agreement and licences may not be assigned or transferred without consent; Support must be bought or renewed for all Riverbed Solutions, not a subset; Lapsed support or subscriptions are back-billed with a 10% reinstatement charge.
Audits and compliance
General Terms s.16.9 allows Riverbed, on at least two weeks’ written notice, to inspect the customer’s books and records “for up to two prior years of records from the date of such audit”. If a breach is found, the customer reimburses the actual audit expenses and pays for unauthorized use at Riverbed’s then-current list price.[1] Riverbed may also ask for written assurances of compliance, including with the Additional Use Rights.[1] Several products produce their own usage records. Packet Analyzer Plus keeps usage logs that the customer may not delete or disable. Riverbed IQ and Aternity count Node executions each month, and Riverbed may invoice overage after two excess-usage notices.[2] The SCC central license manager can export licence inventory for compliance auditing.[7] Catalog proof: Riverbed may audit two years of records on two weeks’ notice; Packet Analyzer Plus usage logs must be kept and excess use is invoiced at list price. The general discipline is covered in software license audit.
Out of scope
- Professional Services terms, the Data Processing Addendum and the U.S. Public Sector Addendum. The last of these replaces or changes some General Terms provisions for U.S. public sector end users.[1]
- SteelConnect EX, SteelFusion and SteelHead RS details beyond what the retrieved documents state, and product lines Riverbed no longer sells.
- Hardware prices, hardware warranties beyond the one-year term in the Hardware Exhibit, and support response times.[5]
- Signed enterprise agreements, local agreements with Riverbed affiliates and channel partner commercial terms. When the customer buys through a partner, the partner sets pricing, invoicing and delivery.[1]